My Name is Ed
by rousey
Summary: 'My name is Ed. This is who I am,' his mind chants, 'My name is Ed.' A Mad Max AU, where Ed is Max and the world, as many people know it, is run by Father and his Chosen Seven, who are praised like immortal beings. I do not own either works.


_Authors Notes: This was hard. I don't write crossover story's because I'm always afraid I'm going to screw up both stories and serve all of the characters no justice and really just mess everything up. It was hard to write and it may be even harder to post. I'm not sure how it came out. It was fun to do though!_

 _But I haven't posted in a while and I had gotten such a splurge of inspiration that I couldn't help but write this. The accounts lolisoup and obersten on Tumblr (who are friends from what I've gathered) created art for a crossover between Mad Max: Fury Road and Fullmetal Alchemist. To be honest after I saw the art, my mind was set on writing a fic for it. They're honestly both so amazing! You should all go check out their art! Especially their Mad Max/FMA crossover stuff because it's all so wonderful!_

 _So anyways, Ed is Max, and Roy is Furiosa. Father is Immortan Joe. I was iffy about changing Furiosa into a man to be honest, because she is a real heroine portrayed so realistically and raw for once in a movie, but it is an AU and it does differ in some areas from the movie. Some characters I wasn't so sure about either. So pleeeaaaasseee don't attack me. It's just a bit of fun! Also I only saw the movie once because that was all I was able (sadly) so I pulled from plot summaries and movie clips on YouTube. The rest is memory and imagination._

 _Do critique my work and tell me some things though! As always, please be nice and truthful!_

 _Enjoy!_

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Humans are moving creatures.

They move to live. Each rise and fall of their chests signal breaths being taken into to convert dust filled air into oxygen. A twitch of the eye lids keeps the eyes from rotting out of their heads. A shake of the limbs spreads gooseflesh over sun bleached skin to keep it warm during the cool nights.

Always moving. Moving always.

Oh but the desert. The desert is stagnant. The sand is settled, the grains of sandy earth baked into place by the blazing sun. It is so still and so quiet that you can't quite tell where the sky begins and the earth stops. The sun's rays beat off the reflective sand, because the sand is there to reflect. Oh sure the winds occasionally stir it all up, cause troubles, but it isn't the _desert_. It's merely the wind and a few angry clouds creating problems for the tired earth.

But humans, they are a creature of habit. Human's will do as those did before them, because they are still on this miserable planet because of them, so naturally that means they had to have done something right. Right? As humans do, with their overpowering unstoppable nature, they turn that dust up.

Hands grip steering wheels and sticks. Feet press gas pedals and clutches.

Isn't it only right that it is called Fury Road? Moving anger, constantly in use, constantly dreaded and yet worshipped.

Isn't it right?

XXX

 _My name is Ed_ his mind told him faithfully. His feet are dragging in the sand now. He coughs and grunts. The hard metal of the table he's thrown down onto isn't comforting.

"He's given us a handle!" the pale and pasty War Boy shouts tauntingly. Ed struggles. His hair that has grown so long is yanked on, helping to hold him in place as they tattoo his back. He growls and grunts, barring his teeth like a rabid dog. There are grimy grubby hands all over him, pressing him down, blunt nails digging into his flesh.

"What's this metal in his skin here for?" one asks. Ed breaths out of his nose sharply, giving a rough jerk as a hand gets too close to the release hatch of his arm.

"It's his limbs, Envy, can't you see it?" the tattooing pauses a moment but it's only a short relief.

"But _how_ is it limbs? Gluttony holding him how he is isn't letting me see much of him Lust!"

"Just mark him up and throw him in his cell already you insolent fool!" It's a womanly voice, airy and light. Ed mushes his face into the metal slab he's lying on.

The tattooing resumes. When they finish, the hands slip off of him foolishly. That's when he bolts. He can't calculate movements. He just knows he needs to _flee_. And that's what he does, in a fury of kicking feet and punches. He sprints down the oddly constructed passageways of wherever it is he's been taken. He doesn't know if he's on flat ground or _underground_.

So he runs. And runs, and runs. Until the murky puddles beneath his feet become too deep. So he leaps to grab the bars overhead. The metal is hot but he clutches to it anyways. Only to see dead-like eyes of the pale men who have taken him in to begin with, crawling around on top of the grates like cockroaches. To see golden bright eyes, blonde hair and hands coming down from between the bars.

He's not sure if his fingers are pried free or if he lets go on his own accord but down he plunges into the water.

" _Brother_ ," the voices come trilling back, whispers in his head and hands, hands that are not the War Boy's, clutching at his face and his shoulders and- _"Brother why are you running? What are you running from brother?"_

 _My name is Ed. This is who I am_ his mind chants. _My name is Ed._

The water burns his eyes as he stares out into it. In between the bubbles and currents as he thrashes, he can see golden eyes and pale skin. Hands with too long nails and bony knuckles that reach toward him. He breathes in the thin air in frantic gulps as he yanks himself free from the waters, running to anywhere but there. Around a corner only to stumble around a thin body that isn't there but he still a wants to avoid running into or seeing.

" _Brother? Are you running from me brother? You promised. Edward. You promised you'd help us._ "

His heart is beating too hard.

" _Brother?"_

He can only shriek, barreling through person after person until he's leaping out into the hot desert air on an impulsive idea, using his chained wrists to hook onto what looks like a cranes giant hook.

XXX

"The Flame Alchemist has gone off road," Wrath informs him. Father stands abruptly, taking the telescope from his son. Indeed, the Flames' War Rig has gone off course. His eyes widen and his hands turn into shaking fists.

He strides down the hall into the vault where his most precious items are kept.

"Ready my car," Father orders his chosen seven. _They_ have been _taken_.

Angry flashes of red alchemic sparks twinkle out of his hands as rocks shoot from the walls in uneven pillars. It makes him too dizzy. He contains his anger, breathing in and out. Alchemy is an old art. It is so tiring to use. He walks back out, adjusting the mask over his face that helps him breathe. Envy is standing still, eyebrow arched upwards in almost amusement.

"Rally the War Boys. Remember to remind them what good soldier's they are."

"Sure thing dad," Envy shrugs, before leaving him. He still is unsure why women of all things are so important to him. Sure they need babies, but humans are just so stupid. They're going to kill those babies anyways at some point. Why treasure women?

But a good child obeys his father.

So Envy leaves and does as told.

XXX

The wind hitting his face is too aggressive, gritty sand scraping his sun burned flesh. He's angry he's hooked up to the car. He's angry he's being used for his blood.

But he's just down right pissed off about the muzzle they have on him. Like he's some _dog_. He curses and shouts but it's drowned out to the whipping wind and loud engines growling around them. The music blaring around them is too noisy.

Instead he focuses on his breathing because it feels like, with the speed they're moving at, that each breath is just being sucked from his lungs.

"Father!" one of the Chosen Seven shrieks. He's the one that Ed is hooked up to. The one who mounted him to the front of the car like a statement piece. "My Father!"

The blonde man driving his own car beside them glances at him, and suddenly the man who had been shrieking recoils with a fain shout.

"He looked at me! He looked right at me!" Greed screeches, with his raw and raspy voice. Ed can't believe this. Are they all like this? So blind and _stupid_ and naive?

"He looked at your blood bag!" Envy snaps back from where he's perched precariously on Fathers vehicle.

"He turned his head he looked me straight in the eye!"

"He was scanning the horizon!" Pride retorts.

"No," Greed said, shaking his head, his black bangs whipping across his forehead in the wind, "I am awaited in the Truth! In the Gate itself! I'll have everything beyond the gate and more as long as My Father commands it so!"

The car speeds up ahead of everyone else as Greed continuously shouts to his Father.

Ed can see, miles away but entirely too close, a sand storm threatening to swallow them up.

XXX

As it's been said, humans are constantly moving.

So when the girls surrounding the water hose stand as still as the sand beneath their feet, he knows that something is wrong. Not even a breath is breathed. An eye blinked. A cough coughed.

It's the blood bag. The one Roy saw strapped to the hood of a War Boy's car. He had made eye contact with him. In a fleeting moment he thought about helping him, but it wasn't his responsibility. He already had too many of those, too many he cared about. He didn't need to tack another one on.

But now, the blood bag is here.

Rabid like a dog, breathing hard, muzzled like the mutt he's behaving like. His eyes are crazy, Roy can see that. It's easy to, when they're such a bright gold like that. Wet and watery from the thin air and desert sand burning into them. His teeth are bared from what he can see behind that muzzle. And his skin, oh his skin is golden and flushed on the outside, but really beneath all of that adrenaline and anger, he's pale and pasty. Being a blood bag is really starting to drain him.

He's got a bit of cargo himself, a war boy still hooked up to him, a car door, and a fancy gun.

Pointed directly at them.

But he's not looking at Roy. He's looking at the girls surrounding the water hose. Roy looks to them too because he knows what that man sees. He's sure all he sees are the woman.

He stumbles forward, swinging the gun around precariously. They all step back and allow him. Roy keeps his fingers pressed together, readying himself to snap. But the blood bag snatches the hose and rams it into his muzzle. He keeps it there, breathing heavily in through his nose as the water drains down his mouth and washes over his face. He drops the hose and stumbles backwards away from the group of people, kicking at the War Boy attached to him in frustration.

It's _Greed_ , Roy realizes with widened eyes, one of the Chosen Seven. Roy's already pissed off Father enough. He's glad he didn't help that blood bag because stealing a blood bag from one of his Chosen Seven children would really just be the cherry on the cake.

He gestures to Maria who is holding the clippers. She looks to Roy who doesn't say a word. Hesitantly, she puts one foot in front of the other and moves toward the blood bag. The clippers are held out in front of her. The blood bag twitches and yanks the chain and blood tube out tightly. He nodded his head and she lifted them slowly.

As he stared at her, Roy bolted across the hot sand. The two flew backwards in a heap of flesh and metal into the sand. It stuck to sweat licked skin. The rage Roy felt at this blood bag for even daring coming near them-

And who says companionships are made from smiles and trust.

XXX

He's pointing a gun at Roy while furiously trying to grate the strap of the muzzle apart.

He doesn't look comfortable with a gun.

Roy continues to drive, amusedly watching him curse and grunt, tugging at the muzzle.

"Looking like a dog suits you," Roy tells him.

"Woof," he responds, cocking the gun.

He won't shoot. He wouldn't dare. And it wouldn't be in his favor, since no one can drive the Rig but him. That was already evident enough. But the blood bag continues to swing the gun around, at him, at the girls who laugh behind him. He lowers it and continues to grate at the muzzle.

"Are you sure it's okay to take him along?" Riza asks in his ear. She has her hand over her round stomach. "He's not from the Citadel. We don't know who he is."

He knows what she means. He has golden hair and golden eyes. She always picked up on things quick.

"The more the merrier," Roy replies.

"I don't think he's all so merry," Mei mumbles. He growls at her, jerking his body toward them causing them all to push against one another in fear. Roy waves the clippers at him and Ed sits back, instantly silent. He throws them at him none too gently and Ed growls.

XXX

"Get back in the hole," Roy tells the girls, "But keep the hatch open." Riza, Maria, Lan Fan, Mei and Winry all do as told. The stranger sitting in the passenger seat watches as they lower themselves into the hidden compartment of the rig.

"I need you here. You may have to drive the rig," Roy tells him.

Ed is still fixated on them. Were they going to become his responsibility if this guy died? He doesn't know how to take care of others. He doesn't. Not anymore. He can't. Did he say he needs him? Why does he need him? It seems they're making do just on their own? There are five girls down in that compartment and he can't even take care of himself.

"That is, if your feet can reach the gas and clutch."

Ed's head snap's around so fast Roy almost laughs.

"Glad you're paying attention. Now, listen, there's a sequence you need to know in order to drive this. A personal finger print if you will. Are you listening? Look at me, _dog_ , not at them."

Ed's eyes that had been wandering lock back onto Roy's. He growls a bit at the usage of the title dog but accepts it.

Roy slides out of the War Rig as Ed hides. His hands are raised. Ed can see alchemy circles etched onto his dirty white gloves. He's fine.

He'll be fine.

"It's all here," he calls, "Three thousand gallons of guzzolene, just like you asked."

There's a moment of silence.

"I'm gonna unhitch the pod," he continues. The sound of motor bike engines revving in the near distance signal the sound of a voice.

"You said a few vehicles in pursuit, _maybe_! We count, _three_ war parties!" a gruff voice sounds. It's so unlike Roy's Ed nearly wants to sit up and see what this person looks like.

The five girls hidden away heard Roy mutter, "Yeah well, I got unlucky."

And then Roy is screaming at him to drive and that's what he does.

XXX

Father is shooting at Roy. Ed can only take one hand off the wheel to load and hand guns to Roy.

"Use your alchemy," Ed grunted. A bomb was thrown on top of the hood, causing it to burst into flames. Roy slinks back down from the sun roof and pulls a lever by Ed's thigh. The grate on the front of the rig lowers down into the sand, and for a minute or two they're driving blind as sand pours and spits up over the windshield. Ed is shooting aimlessly into the sea of pursuing Rock Riders. They go flying off their bikes like gelatinous filled skin bags but his eyes do not linger on them.

"I can't. There's too many fumes in the air. Too much flammable stuff. I don't know what I'd blow up!"

So Ed shuts his mouth and cocks another gun as Roy slides open the roof hatch and leans up out of it. He lifts the gun up and Roy grabs it, pointing directly at Father's car. When shots are fired back, one clips his shoulder and he grunts, his feet slipping, causing him to tumble back into the car.

He rises back up again under Ed's watchful eyes and continues to shoot. It escapes him that the girls have been moving around the whole time behind him.

Riza, with Lan Fan holding on to her, leans out the side of the rig, displaying her very pregnant stomach.

Father stops shooting long enough to scream more about his wives. They hit a rock in the sand and Riza slips from the grasp of the other girls. She holds on as long as she can.

The screams sound too much like the ones inside of his head.

Ed watches as she falls beneath the wheels of their rig.

"We have to go back!" Maria shrieks, "We can't let her go back to him!"

" _Brother why did she fall brother?"_

"She can't be dead. I know her! She can't be," Winry's whispering behind him, "She can't be dead. She isn't."

"If she isn't dead and is under Fathers rules once again this has been all for nothing," Lan Fan shouts over the roaring engine.

"Did you see her fall?" Roy asks. He sounds so desperate.

Ed nods his head once. His hands are so tight around the steering wheel.

"Under the wheels," he says.

" _Did you promise yourself you'd keep them safe? Like you promised us, Ed? Oh, you didn't?"_

"He's lying!" Mei shouted, "He just doesn't want to go back!"

"You saw her fall?" Roy asks him, ignoring the girls in the back a moment. "Are you sure she went under the wheels?"

" _That's good. Then why are you still hurt, Ed? Tell me?"_

"She went under the wheels," Ed repeats, meeting his eyes this time.

Roy straightens in his seat.

"Keep driving."

Ed isn't sure if the screams and sobs are in his head or not. He twitches and shifts into the next gear.

XXX

They find Greed later on, hiding out on the rig. And Lan Fan straightens him right out with a punch to the jaw as he rambles on about how he has lost everything he could have in the Gates of Truth.

"Focus on the now, you silly boy," she says sharply, "Dying for nothing is not great. Dying for something or someone is. This planet is retched, but do not think so little of yourself that you are only a pawn in that monsters game! There is no Gate for the foolish!"

"I didn't mean for her to die."

"Who?" she snaps.

"The round one. I don't hurt women. I don't like seeing them hurt."

Lan fan stares at him. He looks genuinely distraught over her death, and his pity is almost too much for her to care. But he looks lost as to what to say next, and she can tell his mind lingers on Riza, and her death.

Ed growls at him as Greed settles next to the girls in the car.

"Blood bag," he greets with a smirk on his lips.

"I don't like him."

"Well we don't like you," Mei snaps. Roy looks ready to smash his head against the steering wheel, once again driving his own vehicle.

"Fair enough," Ed grunts.

XXX

He twitches in his sleep. Mutters. Grabs at where the metal of his arm meets flesh. Roy can stare. It isn't like they're going to hit anything. They are after all in an expanse that stretches for miles of flat sandy land. He looks younger when he sleeps. But, everyone does always look younger when they're scared.

He looks petrified. He looks frozen in time despite his constant shifting and twitching and breathing. His face remains the same.

It's that type of fear the eats away at your insides. A rot that never subsides. An itch that can't be scratched. That threatens to turn everything that makes you the person you are into an empty body. Into a savage dog.

It's the type that makes you wander the earth. That lets the desert suck you down and then spit you back up.

It's the type of fear Roy himself knows all too well. The type that you've created yourself. And how can someone go on to live a life knowing the things they fear the most are the things that are their fault?

This man, this young man, is someone he doesn't know. But he does know by the way he obeyed his orders and protected the girls, this stranger is someone Roy can trust. Trust is such a strange concept. It's always changing.

Incoherent names are constantly dripping from his lips like defective hose. His legs straighten and then bend back up. His hands and fingers twitch. Roy can't help but stare at the metal arm. The fingers move so fluidly. So life like. Winry had told him earlier there are still people who have such limbs. It's rare to find them in such good condition, since most people are beaten up so their metal parts can be stolen. His is reinforced with mismatched metals, bands of fabric and rusted screws. His leg must be in pretty good condition too.

"Al," he mutters, only for the rest of his sentence to become a garbled mess. His face pressed into the leather of his own jacket. Perhaps the only reason he can still speak is because he feels obligated to answers the voices in his head. He doesn't talk much to those around him though. He doesn't interact with the girls much. Especially not after Riza fell. Roy pushes that thought away.

He's alone with himself. That's scary enough in Roy's mind.

Roy look's ahead, out the dirtied and cracked windshield of the war rig. His hand feels sweaty and hot inside the flint glove on his hand. He doesn't dare take it off.

Again, trust is strange concept.

A few minutes pass before he's shouting himself awake, clapping his hands and smoothing the metal of his arm out into a blade. A quick glance in the rear view mirror reveal the girls are still asleep. Ling, curled beneath the girls, is staring almost amusedly at the blonde in the passenger seat. His skin is still a little glowy from the stranger's blood running through his veins, but he's looking pale again.

Ed's disorientation is telling. So he is often by himself, if not always. He claps again and a flash turns the weapon back into a usable arm.

Roy didn't know he could use alchemy. He couldn't see any arrays on the man's skin or metal. How did he do that?

"Go back to sleep," Roy responded to the man's unasked questions, "We're still a ways off."

He doesn't go back to sleep. He stares out the window, at nothing, but clearly seeing something, as he rubs at his shoulder.

"How do you even know this place even exists?" he asked. His words are slurred and his eyes aren't looking too focused just yet. Roy turns back straight. He can almost see the sand part where earth vines sprout from beneath the crusted earth. Where hills of greens and pools of blue spread out beyond his feet. He could smell the freshness. Taste it in the air. The greenness. Each breath felt deeper, heavier, _and cleaner_.

He could almost feel the smooth fuzz of leaves against his child like hands. Feel the better world that he could have. If he could make it there.

He can hear voices he hasn't heard in years. So many days that retched Father has put between him and his family.

His mechanical hand tightened around the steering wheel.

"I was born there."

"So why'd you leave?" he asked confused. It was almost like he was a child. He was young. How young Roy wasn't sure because whatever he's seen or done has certainly aged him. He swiped at his blonde bangs sticking to his forehead. His hair was so long. It was knotty and dust filled, pulled back into a braid.

His eyes were golden and his hair was blonde. It made him wonder.

"I didn't," Roy said softly, as the desert came floating back on a cloud of heat and sweat and the stink of guzzoline fumes, "I was taken as a child." He sees the younger man look away, his eyebrows furrowed. End of conversation. "Stolen."

Stolen indeed. Like the girls resting behind them. But he was not for breeding. Oh no, he was for fighting. He was a special kind of dog. One that could snap and set even the deserts sand aflame. Melt impurities in the sand away and turn the ground into liquid where enemies may stand, only for it to solidify into glass and break in shards in their already burned and charred flesh.

Father's dogs would howl and hoot as he worked amongst the other war boys. He was unlike them and he was unlike the Fathers Chosen Seven. He didn't fit in with either of the groups.

The man spoke again. And Roy wasn't expecting it, but it didn't surprise him. He was after all, disoriented from a dream. This is all this _was_. This was their longest conversation. Well, it had the most back and forth so far.

"You done this before?"

"Many times," he nearly sighs, shaking his head slightly. Now was not the time for such thoughts and wishes. The past was the past. There would be no future to have and no new past if he were not to live in anything but the present. Presently, they were doing alright for the time being. "But now that I drive a war rig, this is the best shot I have."

"And them?" he asks, pointing with his metal finger. The girls are young. Some just barely women. It's a jerky movement, but his question holds no bitterness. Only curiosity. He's curious. Roy see's it in his eyes again. He doesn't speak, but he says so much without meaning to. He's a real pain in the ass sometimes, difficult, brash, moody, but he is _always_ curious.

"They're looking for hope."

"What about you?"

Burning flesh wafts into his nose through the desert air. He breathes out noiselessly.

"Redemption."

XXX

And then they're stuck. Wheels turning in mud and swamp and yet their rig is at a standstill.

Humans don't like to be stopped. It's part of the whole always moving bit.

Ed doesn't use a gun to aim, just to shoot. Earlier Mei told them they had four shots and he had already used three and had missed each time. Roy takes the gun from him and Ed seamlessly lowers himself to his knees. He feels the weight of it on his shoulder as Roy rests the gun down to anchor the shot.

"Don't breathe," he tells Ed.

The shot is fired and there are screams, but the sounds of the pursuing car don't stop.

"Where'd you learn to shoot like that?"

"Riza," Roy answers quietly. Ed stands and looks to the girls. They all look so sad.

"I will buy some time," he responds to no one. He hesitantly picks up a gun, lips pursing. He swung it over his shoulder. He claps and his arm thins out into a blade. "Don't wait. Leave if I don't come back in ten minutes."

" _Brother are you making promises you can't keep again, brother?"_

And then he disappears into the glowing fog with that order of his own. Roy only protests weakly, knowing he'd say the same. He knows he's going to follow that order too, because it's what he does. But at the sight of the man's shoulders disappearing as he barrels off into the smog of the swamps, he can't move his feet to get things prepared if they have to leave. But Greed's reminder makes him move and they get to work on the Rig.

A while or so later the light in the fog goes out with a bang and a crash. The sound of gun fire and screams cause Winry to shift closer to Mei as they listen. Then the smog is on fire with angry reds and oranges as something explodes, muted around the edges like the fire has been encased in time and smudged.

Everyone stares at the smoke billowing out into the natural fog. It smells like fumes and soot.

But then he comes trudging back. At first none of them are sure it's him, and Roy has his hand raised to snap in case it's not. But he emerges with his uneven footsteps and Roy lowers his hand. He's got ammunitions and guns slung over his shoulder and a bag full of goodies Roy see's Lan fan immediately staring at.

He's covered in blood.

Winry looks to him, eyes worried. He knows she wants to help. To bandage him up.

"Are you hurt?" Maria asks. Roy doesn't even think he hears her.

"No," so Roy says softly, "That's not his blood."

They all step back as he chucks a pair of boots at Ling who catches them easily and strides over to the bucket hanging off the side of the rig.

"What is this?" he asks, pointing.

"Mothers Milk," Mei says softly.

He makes a face and then stares down at it before dipping his hands into it and using it to wash off his face.

Once the Rig is driving again, Ed fist bumps Greed who had helped in the process. Roy notices his wariness of them is waning.

XXX

"You look like him."

"Who?" Ed suddenly asks. His voice is so low and rough. It sounds like it hurts him to make noise with his throat.

"Father," Greed responds, "But more, human?"

"Father is a human," Roy snaps, "Just because you can use alchemy, doesn't make you any more than a human."

"I mean he doesn't look like a monster," Greed responds. "Yeah he's got a few screws lose, probably literally, but more so mentally but… He's not like Father."

"They say that a man with golden hair and golden eyes brought alchemy here," Mei says quietly. The swamps are eerie and quiet but the sun is beginning to rise. "That he touched one person and then a thousand were born with the ability in their blood."

"And then he created structures in which water could be given to the people, therefore giving him power," Maria says.

"And despite all of the Great Wars," Winry says, "He prevailed. Him with his Seven Chosen children, who help him."

"And his War Boys, his soldiers," Greed nods. From the corner of Edward's eyes, he sees Roy's neck constrict as he swallows. "Those with their own alchemy were exploited."

"People say he and his Chosen Seven are hundreds of years old," Lan Fan says.

Ed's looking out the window. He doesn't answer any of them. Eventually the attention turns to Greed as he's asked about his life as a War Boy. In return he asks the girls about their lives, sad to find that there isn't much for them to talk about. Sad that they have so little.

"How do you use alchemy without an array?" Roy asks beneath the chatter of the girls and Greed in the back. Using alchemy without an array seems to be another similarity between him and Father.

"Because I am a fool," Ed says harshly, "And not for the reasons you think."

"That's all I needed to hear," Roy says.

They listen as Greed makes the girls laugh quietly with stories of his youth.

XXX

"I'm not saying it's a trap, but a naked woman all alone naked like that seems like a trap," Greed agrees with Ed who had already stated his thoughts.

Roy slips from the rig anyways. He knows something. Ed shakes his head, leaning forward in his seat.

The woman stops yelling.

"My name is Roy," he calls, "I am of the Vuvalini."

The woman climbs down just as Ed slips from the war rig. She dawns a gray fabric, wrapping it around her body. She hurries towards Roy, disbelief on her face.

"Roy," she says quietly, "You are the Roy I know."

"Izumi," Roy nods once. Their foreheads press together in greeting. His mother had been good friends with her. She looks over his shoulder and her eyes widen. Roy turns sideways to see that Ed is standing only a few feet behind them.

"I know your face," she says, stepping towards him slightly, "I _know_ you."

He doesn't speak. Roy stares at him too.

"You were younger when I last saw you," Izumi continues, eyes resting on his metal limbs, "But I would know those eyes anywhere."

He shakes his head, kicking at the sand.

"Then why did you get out of the rig?" Roy points out, almost smugly.

Ed turns from them. Anything he could say would sound stupid. He's angry at Roy but he has no reason to be. It feels that way often, it seems. He hears Roy ask Izumi how she knows Ed, but she tells him she's only seen him in passing several times.

Izumi's whistles loudly. Bikers from over the hill descend towards them, torrents of sand spitting out from beneath their tires. By now the girls are climbing out from the rig. They're greeted by the older women, being touched and examined in awe.

"What clear skin you have!"

"You have all your teeth!"

"Where are your scars?"

"Are those seeds?" Maria asks.

XXX

He stares as they ride off into the salt flats with everything on their bikes that they could fit. The green lands were gone. They were the very swamps they were stuck in for so long.

And yet the keep moving to find some other hope. Humans move to survive.

" _Are you letting them go brother? Why are you letting them go?"_ That voice comes back and he can feel Al's presence at his side, feel his hands and his breath against his ear. _"Are they leaving you Ed? Are they going because of you? Why are you letting them leave? Ed? Why won't you answer me Edward? Ed?"_

 _My name is Ed_ , his mind says in response. _This is who I am._

" _But you are stupid Ed. Ed aren't you? How foolish you are. What is there that way but dry salt? You can't make anything from salt. Not even hope."_

"My name is Ed," he says aloud.

He jumps onto his bike and after them he goes, riding as fast as he can until he's causing them to come to a stop. He climbs off his bike, staring Roy down.

"There's nothing that way." He says it so surely that Roy is sure he's right. It only makes him more annoyed. This wanderer, this man who belongs to nowhere has come back to them. He's so tired of this. This constant _struggle_.

"There's nothing here either," Roy says tightly. He's distressed. His eyes are angry. His eyes are sad.

"Where was there green?" Ed asks.

"At the Citadel," Winry says upon the open silence, "Not much, but it was there."

He holds open his little map, a flimsy piece of fabric with things drawn on to it in crooked hand writing. After Roy stares at it, he lowers it. Roy is quiet. He doesn't say anything. For once, the decision maker doesn't know what to say.

"There's nothing that way," Ed says. "Trust me."

It's the first time he's asked him to do so. Roy considers his options. Glances around at the girls, at the women, at this man who's asking to trust him despite the fact he doesn't even know his _name_.

"And how exactly do we take the Citadel?" he asks numbly, because his options are _zero_ , "Assuming we're still alive by then."

"If we can block the pass, it'll be easy," Mei answers, chewing on the tooth pick in her mouth, "All that's left are his war pups and war boys too sick to fight. His Chosen Seven are with him."

"And we'll be with Greed," Lan Fan says surely, "He's a war boy, one of the Chosen Seven. He'll be bringing us home, bringing back what's stolen as he's meant to."

They all turn to him, and he is shrugging.

"Feels like hope," he says indifferently, and then with more fire, "Taking a whole Citadel? That's something I can get behind."

"Look," Ed says shortly, folding up his map and gesturing to the flat ground ahead of them, "It'll be a hard day, but I guarantee you that a one hundred and sixty days ride that way…" He stares, like he's almost forgotten his thought. "There's nothing but salt."

He looks back to Roy, looking up at him, and then down at the map in his hands.

"At least that way," he points in the opposite direction, "You know we may be able to," he pauses, still not looking at Roy and maybe he's even trying to sort through the voices in his head, "Together," he pauses again, voice rumbling more so than before, "Come across some kind of redemption."

It's almost said off handedly, but he can see the effect it has on Roy. He knew what effect it would have on Roy.

He holds his metal hand out casually, just a swing of the arm and a tilt of the head. Roy looks back down at him.

He takes the hand with his own mechanical one.

XXX

And it all happens so fast.

He's too busy fighting Envy to stop Maria from being taking off the War Rig and onto Father's car. He hears the girls scream over the sound of rapid gunfire and sputtering engines. It fuels him to pull the arrow from his hand and out of his forehead. He barrels toward Envy and throws him off the rig.

Greed is driving the Rig which would explain the wild turns and random bursts of speed. Through the haze of exhaust and sand, he's see's Roy clinging to the side of Father's car. He's bleeding. Blood that spreads through the white of his shirt like an ugly disease. He begins to head toward him only to hear ugly laughter and feel a weight on his foot.

"Where do you think you're going, human?" Envy sneers. He grabs ahold of the man's ankle and tugs him down. Ed goes toppling off the side of the Rig, clinging to a jagged pipe just as Envy had done to keep from going under the wheels.

Fighting is hard when you only have your feet. So he kicks and kicks. Making use of his metal leg to _snap_ , _snap_ , _crack_ and _break_ Envy's bones. Repeatedly he kicks, loosening the dark haired man's hold on him. One final kick to his side releases Envy's hold on him. He climbs back over the side in time to watch as Father's jaw is ripped off by his own mask that Roy has attached to the moving wheels of his own car.

He runs across the top of the moving Rig and begins to hand over the girls to Izumi's waiting arms. They all cling to him until the last moment they need to let go. They have all held their own. They've all done so well. Greed watches carefully, keeping an eye on the cars still in pursuit of them. The canyon pass is approaching fast and they need to get _through_ it _fast_.

"Go!" Greed snaps as Ed spares him a glance as he stands on the hood of the rig. All of the passengers of the rig are now riding in Father's car, except him. "I have bigger and better dreams!"

Ed nodded once, pressing his fist up against the glass.

"I'm not one for sentimentalities," he grumbles, but he presses his fist up against the glass too. And then Ed leaps off the rig and onto Fathers car with a thud. He doesn't watch as Greed flips the rig three times, blowing up the canyon pass. He sees that Lan Fan does, her dark eyes widened with tears spilling out of them. He doesn't know why she's so sad, since he's doing as she had told him to do.

He rests down beside Roy who is frightfully pale. The girl's part to let him do so. He lifts his uneven hands to do something, but he doesn't know what to do. He meets Izumi's eyes. She looks lost as well.

"Why is he making that noise?" Maria asks. Wheezing breaths are leaving his barely parted lips. His eyes are shut so tightly. One is even swollen shut in an angry inflamed patch of red and purple skin. His cuts ooze with sand ridden blood. Despite his eyes shut so tightly, his body is limp. Unmoving bodies were never any good.

"His lungs are filling with fluid," Izumi says quietly. "And he is in a great deal of pain."

Ed finds the very knife that Roy was stabbed with, though he doesn't know that.

"I am so sorry," he says before shoving it into his side. The man's eyes shoot open and he takes in a quivering gasp. "Easy now. Hey, look at me?"

"He's lost too much blood. He needs two pints, at least," Mei say's shaking her head. "No one has enough for themselves, let alone to give away."

But Ed isn't listening. He shakes his head, looking around. His eyes spot a needle that was being used for one of Father's war boy's blood bags. He sets up a make shift IV, putting a needle in his own arm and the other end in Roy's. Once a blood bag always a blood bag.

"Hold this, high," he tells Winry. She obeys without a word. He pulls the man's head into his lap, shaking his own. He can't die. Not with the sight of the Citadel in the cracked windshield. He can't.

He presses his hand to Roy's face. They all watch, not just because of the situation, but because they've never seen this brash and aggressive man behave so _gently_. He has never looked so scared in front of them in the few days they have known him. Muttering apologies under his breath, masked by grunts.

Yes he's looked wary and worried, but never _scared_.

He can feel their eyes. Their very _real_ eyes. The voices in his head are only a murmur. The people around him are very _real_ people. The voices get so quiet when others are around him.

"My name is Ed," Ed tells him, as his eyes open just barely. He leans a fraction closer, "That's my name."

His skin is cold beneath _Ed's_ palm, but his eyes are slits, not open enough but more open than they were before. Obsidian eyes that are dark and hazy, the whites of the blood shot and glossy. But his eye lids are blinking. His eye lids are moving. His eyes are swiveling around in his head looking for a white light but _Ed_ is there to blot it out. Stubborn _Ed_.

He's alive with _Ed's_ blood running through his veins.

"That is my name," he repeats more firmly, nodding his head.

And suddenly it seems, he is no stranger to any of them.

XXX

A while later as they rise on the platform to the green place that had been with them the entire time, Roy seeks out Ed in the crowd below. It's easy to with his bright hair and drawing eyes, sure, but it's the fact that he's moving _away_ and not _towards_.

He's leaving.

He will take his time, continue to sort through the voices in his head, but he will come back. They'll both keep moving forward, seeking their redemption in different ways. This was just the start.

The word _together_ flutters around in both of their heads, prevalent and sure throughout all of the uncertainty.

 _Together_.

.

.

 _Authors Notes: How did I do? I don't expect a lot of people to read this because it's such an obscure pairing of two drastically different stories but if you do read it and like it, feel free to review!_

 _I apologize for grammar and/or spelling mistakes as well. I have read it over a multiple times but I may have a missed a few!_

 _Hope you enjoyed!_

 _-rousey_


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